An AH-64 Apache helicopter with 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, flies out into the box during a simulated attack mission, as part of the culminating force-on-force exercise of Combined Resolve XII at the Joint Multinational Readin...
WASHINGTON -- The Army plans to embed training capabilities into its future vertical lift helicopters and next-generation combat vehicles an Army commander said Thursday.
They will help aviators become more efficient in their training, said Brig. Gen. Stephen Michael, deputy commanding general of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, speaking at an Association of the U.S. Army "Hot Topics" forum on aviation Sept. 5.
The technology will allow pilots and combat vehicle operators to train inside their primary operating vehicles. System trainers are already being used for the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) project, a single-platform, heads-up display that lets Soldiers train in realistic virtual environments. The Army expects to reach initial operating capability for the IVAS system by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.
Also by 2021, the synthetic training environment (STE) will provide realistic aviation training at home stations and deployed locations using reconfigurable virtual trainers that will replicate the Army's attack, reconnaissance, cargo and utility helicopters. This will offer formations to conduct collective, combined arms maneuver training from Soldier and squad through battalion levels.
"The intent for STE is to have both ground and air collective trainers that are mobile, transportable, modular and scalable with the minimum hardware necessary to represent form, fit and function required to execute collective training tasks," said Col. Jim Tenpenny, TRADOC Capability Manager STE at CAC.
To keep its competitive edge over near-peer adversaries, the Army has been preparing for large-scale ground combat operations, Michael said.
To help Soldiers achieve the Army's ambitious readiness goals, the service has made advances in its training. The Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and the Institute for Creative Technologies in Southern California have been developing the One World Terrain (OWT) that will eventually become a pillar of the synthetic training environment. OWT will provide a fully accessible 3D representation of the globe to support training and mission rehearsal.
As the Army transitions from fighting counter-insurgency battles to large-scale ground combat operations, some Soldiers have already embraced the changes in training Army leaders said Thursday.
Col. Kenneth Cole, the deputy commander at the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama, recently completed a two-year stint as the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade commander in Ansbach, Germany, where he could see the change in Soldiers who transitioned to his unit in Western Europe.
"The Soldiers are coming out already familiar with the concepts of large-scale combat operations," Cole said. "And the doctrine is being embedded into the programs of instruction all across the board."
One challenge the Army faces with its aviation platforms, including the AH-64 Apache and the CH-47 Chinook, is successfully creating realistic training scenarios in simulations that accurately depict the complexities of the aircraft said Col. John Ferrell, director of simulation for the Aviation Center of Excellence. He said the aviation branch struggles to maintain simulation concurrency for each of the platforms as the service prepares for multi-domain operations in the air, land, space, cyberspace and sea.
"Our simulations still do not fully replicate the complexity of [multi-domain operations] as described in the doctrine," he said. "Although we're doing the best that we can with the simulations we have and innovative people to design the scenarios to meet training objectives."
When asked how the Army could improve its training, Michael said a focus on leader development and helping commanders drive training standards could help prepare Soldiers better. He added that the service could conduct better assessments of training programs and how Soldiers respond to the training.
Retired Gen. James D. Thurman, the former commander of both United Nations Command and Army Forces Command, suggested that the Army should return to having a more standard operating procedures, or SOP, along with concise training objectives.
"That's what we did with the Apache program, everybody had one SOP," Thurman said. "That's the way we trained in the armored cavalry regiments in the old days. Everybody knew what was expected."
As the Army incorporates augmented reality and the synthetic training environment into its training procedures, Ferrell said that commanders must remain cognizant of augmented reality and virtual reality limitations.
While the synthetic training environment can replicate dense forests and even urban battlefield situations, even the most realistic virtual training program cannot always accurately render a real-world battle scenario.
"Simulations do get better and better every year; how it replicates the real world is getting better and better," Ferrell said. "They are always limited. As a commander, as a trainer in the field, you've got to understand those limitations. You've got to employ the tools within that limitation."
Still, the general said that proficiency in multi-domain operations gives the Army the capability to solve complex problems with an array of methods, but maintaining the U.S. military's competitive edge over near-peer adversaries requires mastery of [multi-domain operations].
To do so, the Army must enable brigades and divisions to be capable of earning certifications at their home duty station, so they can remain one step ahead for advanced training.
"So when you show up at a combat training center, it's not next to crawl walk and run, but it's actually going to war against a thinking, breathing, enemy," Michael said. "And the combat training centers can actually push you the way an enemy would."
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